Abstract
During the Early Bronze Age, populations of the western Eurasian steppe expanded across an immense area of northern Eurasia. Combined archaeological and genetic evidence supports widespread Early Bronze Age population movements out of the Pontic–Caspian steppe that resulted in gene flow across vast distances, linking populations of Yamnaya pastoralists in Scandinavia with pastoral populations (known as the Afanasievo) far to the east in the Altai Mountains1,2 and Mongolia3. Although some models hold that this expansion was the outcome of a newly mobile pastoral economy characterized by horse traction, bulk wagon transport4–6 and regular dietary dependence on meat and milk5, hard evidence for these economic features has not been found. Here we draw on proteomic analysis of dental calculus from individuals from the western Eurasian steppe to demonstrate a major transition in dairying at the start of the Bronze Age. The rapid onset of ubiquitous dairying at a point in time when steppe populations are known to have begun dispersing offers critical insight into a key catalyst of steppe mobility. The identification of horse milk proteins also indicates horse domestication by the Early Bronze Age, which provides support for its role in steppe dispersals. Our results point to a potential epicentre for horse domestication in the Pontic–Caspian steppe by the third millennium bc, and offer strong support for the notion that the novel exploitation of secondary animal products was a key driver of the expansions of Eurasian steppe pastoralists by the Early Bronze Age.
Highlights
The Yamnaya expansions are well-established, the driving forces behind them remain unclear
On the eastern Eurasian steppe, growing evidence suggests that horses were not ridden[11,12,18] or milked[19] before about 1200 bc, and horses may have been uncommon in early pastoralist assemblages[20]
Published stable isotope and archaeological studies applied to Eneolithic populations from the Pontic region point to an economy based on fishing, the gathering of local plants and the keeping of domesticated animals[6,21,27,28].Given the importance of the horse in reconstructions of early pastoralist expansions, we examined dental calculus from two individuals from the well-known site of Botai
Summary
Shevan Wilkin1,2 ✉, Alicia Ventresca Miller[1,3], Ricardo Fernandes[1,4,5], Robert Spengler[1], William T.-T. Combined archaeological and genetic evidence supports widespread population movements in the Early Bronze Age (about 3300 to 2500 bc) from the Pontic–Caspian steppe that resulted in gene flow across vast distances, linking Yamnaya pastoralist populations in Scandinavia with groups that expanded into Siberia[9]. Published stable isotope and archaeological studies applied to Eneolithic populations from the Pontic region point to an economy based on fishing, the gathering of local plants and the keeping of domesticated animals[6,21,27,28].Given the importance of the horse in reconstructions of early pastoralist expansions, we examined dental calculus from two individuals from the well-known site of Botai. The majority of Eneolithic individuals (10 out of 11 (92%)) in our assemblage lack any evidence for milk consumption, a Murzikha 2 0/2
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